Big chill descends as Lowry keeps his cool

MICHAEL LOWRY was demonstrating Boyle's Law of Courtroom Pressure. Which, as any law student knows, states that at a constant temperature, the volume of a given answer is inversely proportional to the pointedness of the question.

The temperature was certainly constant on the third day of the resumed hearings at Dublin Castle. The day-long trawl through Mr Lowry's career in refrigeration saw a big chill descend on the hall, and his relations with counsel for the tribunal were never better than frosty.

The former minister spoke often of the huge savings he had made for Dunnes Stores; but he could not achieve any of the same economies with language, as Mr Denis McCullough SC attempted to probe his relationship with the company.

Vast amounts of English were being written off as the day wore on, and the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Brian McCracken, was at least as frustrated as Mr McCullough. When counsel for Mr Lowry complained that a line of inquiry was not relevant, the chairman interjected: "It might have been a lot easier if your client had simply answered the questions asked."

But then they were difficult questions concerning among other things the great philosophical issue of the duality of man.

The crux of the problem was that Mr Lowry was at different times a consultant acting personally to provide refrigeration for Dunnes Stores; and at other times he was sole shareholder of a company doing likewise.

"I've always considered myself and the company as one," he explained, when asked why payments apparently due to the company went directly into his personal bank accounts. He worked in a "dual capacity", he added, and told himself that certain payments were in respect of personal consultancy work rather than that of the company.

"But did you ever tell anybody else?" snapped Mr McCullough.

The day began late - with the chairman attempting to close the Pandora's Box opened by the Ansbacher revelations. A widening of the tribunal's terms of reference would not be helpful, Mr Justice McCracken said in a statement.

But Mr Lowry was having his own problems with terms of reference as the day progressed. Referred to it by Mr McCullough, he modestly declined authorship of the phrase "cosy cartel," while accepting it would "attach to me forever". "Sweetheart deals" was another term attached to him, Mr McCullough reminded, as he bore in on the nature of the deal with Dunnes.

When Mr Lowry said the dual payments system was "always a bit woolly", the remark was double-edged. His own answers were a wool-rich mixture at times, although there were some tougher fibres there, too, as he fought off Mr McCullough's onslaught.

He kept his cool throughout, except once. There was a tear in his eye when, describing a payment he made to the Revenue Commissioners and the "huge outlay" on professional help with his tax irregularities, he said a Pounds 100,000 account he head in the Channel Islands was no longer there".

Even when admitting such irregularities, however, he managed to maintain an aura of injured innocence. He once referred to Dunnes' former chief executive by his full name - Bernard"; and if he wasn't invoking the saint of the same name, he still looked like a man with his own halo - a little rusty, perhaps, but firmly fixed despite Mr McCullough's efforts to knock it off.

The final skirmish of a testing day concerned Mr Lowry's apparent establishment in the Isle of Man of a company called Badgeworth Ltd. Mr Donal O'Donnell SC may have been unconsciously inspired by the name when he rose to complain about the "badgering" of his client.

But then, Mr McCullough had made an equally accidental pun when, shortly after asking Mr Lowry why he received a payment in English money, he made reference to his "sterling work" for Dunnes.

Ironic as it was, Mr Lowry would have agreed with the sentiment. He had earlier portrayed himself as a man who could "deliver", but his inability to deliver straight answers brought another rebuke from the chairman as the session drew to a close. Three times Mr McCullough had asked the same question about tax, and thrice Mr Lowry denied him an answer.

The cock crowed at this point (or at least the clock struck four) and the session ended. Mr Lowry's evidence continues today.